ReSpine Pain Training – Relaxation

Everyone experiences stress of varying severity at different times in their lives.

Higher levels of stress have been found to be closely related to persistent pain, either as a consequence of pain or as a risk factor for developing persistent pain.

Persistent pain often develops when high levels of stress or trauma are associated with an injury or surgery. Any persistent pain is more likely to develop at stressful times in our lives.

Pain will often increase as stress increases.

And increased pain will lead to an increase in stress. 

So, one way to reduce your pain, is to reduce your stress.

Anything that reduces stress – we will call relaxation.

There are varying definitions of stress, but here, we will define stress as sensory or information overload – when your brain receives more information from your body or the environment than you can manage.

Stress may be increased by emotional, cognitive, physical or environmental factors.

Examples of emotional factors include having arguments with others, grieving, cheering on your favorite team, being upset and worrying.

Examples of cognitive (cog-nee-tive = related to thinking) factors include needing to concentrate or pay attention, talking to people, being in a crowd, doing exams and going to a job interview.

Examples of physical factors include any illness, too much or too little exercise, diet related toxins (too much sugar or alcohol) or a new injury.

Examples of environmental factors include COVID (community stress), heat, cold, pollution and noise.